I never thought I’d see the day that I would change the way I cook. I remember saying for years, “I just learned how to cook and bake all these great recipes. Why would I want to change that and learn a whole new way to cook?” I mean really – substituting apple sauce for oil to keep a baked goods moist? I used butter! Silly thing is, now they’ve decided all the oils are bad for you and to go back to using… real butter!
Of course, that was way back when I wasn’t thinking about longevity, living in a healthy manner, or finding out that most of the food on the shelves is bad for you! People are discovering that the chemicals are the reason we have so many health problems. Imagine that.
It started out as a very simple thing – hubby decided to cut out excess sugar in his life. We had already worked on cutting out refined white sugar and white flour products (*sigh* good bye hot rolls). But once we discovered SUGAR in our diet-mandated MEAL REPLACEMENT DRINK, we decided to make a little change. It was such an innocent thought and desire. Who knew it was going to turn into a major life overhaul??
trying to find a box of cereal that didn’t have sugar added to it became a huge chore. I stood in the cereal aisle of my local grocery store and began reading the back of cereal boxes… well at least the ones I ASSUMED were healthy and wouldn’t have added sugar.
Turns out even those who claim to have no added sugar were not telling the truth. Oh, they didn’t have the word “sugar” in their ingredient list. Nope. They went for words like brown rice syrup, barley malt, buttered or cane syrup, cane-juice crystals, or corn syrup/solids – and that’s just the words you understand and can pronounce. How about dextran, dextrose, diatase, diastatic malt, ethyl maltol, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltodextrin, maltose, mannitol, or sorbitol??
Turns out there are only two cereals on the market without added sugar – shredded wheat and rolled or steel cut oatmeal. No, sorry, instant oatmeal with brown sugar does not count! Also turns out that a lot of people who say “HEY, we’re healthy! We search the world for healthy foods so you can trust us” are not quite telling the truth!
You would be astounded at what products have added sugar. Some were obvious – BBQ sauce – and some were surprises - shredded coconut.
So we went from sugar to “hey, if we can’t pronounce it, why are we eating it?” We began eating “live” foods – fresh vegies and fruits. No more canned vegies. We switched to any frozen brand that didn’t have additives (Green Giant). Well except for green beans. There is no good flavored frozen green bean. They are just nasty. My opinion, for sure!!
We went to our local food processing store – i.e., fresh meat without additives. WOW what a shock that was to my taste buds – it tastes so much differently. Of course the other SHOCK was the sticker price on some foods - $13 for a organic chicken anyone? Over $3 for organic eggs?
MAN. To think I could have changed all this stuff years ago but I didn’t want to change the way I cooked. I thought it would be too much hassle and ruin perfectly good foods - green beans with bacon bits and bacon bits anyone?
Funny thing is, we have both discovered how amazing food tastes when your taste buds are not coated in chemicals. Some things taste wonderful – like those fresh tomatoes right out of the garden. Other things have been ruined for us, forever, like all that fried food we used to eat at the local catfish house. We WANTED it to taste good – it just didn’t. And we both woke up the next day feeling hung over – most likely from excessive carb overload! Or Chinese food – waaaay too sweet, now.
But we feel WONDERFUL! We look better and we have less health problems – like joint aches and pains (gone), skin eruptions (gone), dry skin and hair (gone), waking up with runny nose, congestion, headache (gone) – the list is long!
So call me a health nut – really – go ahead! I am proud to be a health nut ‘cause you know what? I’m going to live a long, long time and be healthy at it!
JOY is feeling GREAT!
